


Bruce Wayne had a vasectomy shortly after he became the Batman (but started a family anyway).

by CloakedSparrow



Series: Collected Bat-Family Stories [1]
Category: Bat Family (DC), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Bat Brothers, Bat Family, Batdad, Found Family, Gen, No Dialogue, No Romance, No Sex, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 12:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11013087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedSparrow/pseuds/CloakedSparrow
Summary: Bruce Wayne had a vasectomy shortly after he became the Batman (but he started a family anyway).





	Bruce Wayne had a vasectomy shortly after he became the Batman (but started a family anyway).

Bruce thought long and hard about it. His life was too dangerous, too uncertain, too reckless and too full to ever consider having a baby. Batman would face danger night after night. He would have many enemies.

Bruce Wayne wouldn’t be without enemies either. Someone might want to blackmail him or ransom his child. A desperate or selfish woman might even try to get pregnant by him to get to his money. Then he’d have to worry about keeping his child _and_ his secret safe.

Alfred understood and supported the decision. He was sad that there would be no future generations of Waynes running around the manor, but he respected Bruce’s choice. He also thought it was a responsible one.

Of course, about a year later an eight year old orphaned circus performer entered the picture and taught Bruce (and reminded Alfred) that you don’t need to be able to have children to become a father.

Bruce figured out how to work Dick into both aspects of his life and to his surprise (though he’d never tell anyone he had any doubts to begin with) it actually _did work_. The boy was the light of both his lives.

He couldn’t have loved Dick more if he were his own flesh and blood. 

The same was true of Jason. Before and after his fatal run in with The Joker. Even when they fought, even when Bruce was furious at him or disappointed or frightened by what he was capable of, Jason was his son.

And later, the same was true of Tim and Cassandra. They weren’t his blood but they were his children. His progeny. His greatest achievements. His family.

When Talia came forward claiming she’d had his child, Bruce immediately knew she was lying. He just wasn’t sure why at first. So he played along and realized her goal was simply to have Bruce bound to her. He also realized she genuinely believed that Damian was his child.

His decision from there was a no-brainer. He would take Damian -just as he had taken Dick, Jason, Tim and Cassandra- and raise him.

It would be harder. Bruce had grown more skilled over time but not more patient. Damian had Bruce’s darkness but none of his experience. He had Dick’s natural skill but not his natural compassion. He had a level of training nearly on par with Cassandra but he lacked her her conscience. His inborn anger was greater than Jason’s had been and Bruce hadn’t handled that well the first time around. He lacked Tim’s natural skill for deduction but that was probably a blessing.

Still, taking him in was better than leaving the child to live amongst assassins and Bruce didn’t care that the boy wasn’t biologically his. Bruce was certain that he and his family could help Damian.

The only dilemma Bruce had was whether he should tell Damian the truth or not. He quickly decided not to. Damian was too volatile and being the son of Batman was too much of a guiding force in his life. Taking it away from him would do more harm than good. He wasn’t sure that he would never tell him, only that he couldn’t yet.

Again, Alfred understood. They told no one.

It all seemed to be going well enough until Bruce ‘died’. At least as far as (most of) his family was concerned.

Dick took in Damian without hesitation, but in the process of making sure no one could take his youngest sibling from him, he discovered the truth. Naturally, it didn’t make him stop seeing Damian as his brother, but it did worry him that it could be grounds for Talia or Ra’s Al Ghul to try to take him back.

He and Tim weren’t on the best terms at the moment, but Dick didn’t know who else to call for help. Despite his issues with Dick and ~~the demon spawn~~ Damian, Tim came through. They were, after all, his brothers.

Tim made sure the results of Damian’s blood work, his birth certificate and any other necessary records all agreed that Bruce was the boy’s father. Unlike Bruce or Dick, he also found out who Damian’s biological father was: Jason Todd.

Tim didn’t tell Dick, Damian or Alfred. Like Bruce, he knew what it could do to Damian to learn he wasn’t the ‘true’ son of Batman. The idea was the foundation of the kid’s identity. Remove that, and everything he built upon it would collapse.

Tim almost told Jason. Instead, he asked for his big brother’s advice. He posed it as an aside in a case he’d worked. ‘Crime family on his mother’s side, cop father recently deceased, family member took the kid in, no one knows the truth.’ He asked what Jason thought he should do.

Jason asked some questions about the kid’s mental state, about the new guardian and the biological father. He said it sounded like the child was in a loving, stable home and the truth would only disrupt that. He and Tim knew what it was like to have your childhood disrupted over and over again. He thought they should leave it be.

Tim accepted the reasoning. Jason was pleased he’d been consulted, that he’d been respected and listened to. He and Tim got along better than ever after that.

Tim didn’t tell anyone the truth and he did what he could to make sure no ever found out. Even after he brought Bruce back from the dead.

Bruce only learned that Dick and Tim knew Damian wasn’t his biological child, but that both still considered him their brother. He saw that Dick had cared for Damian as well as he’d been able (which was more than enough) and it’d had a notable and positive effect on his youngest son. He noticed that the animosity between Jason and Tim had vanished, in fact they seemed to like each other best of all their brothers. Cassandra, as always, got along fine with each of her brothers even as she grew more and more independent of them.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever been more proud of his children.


End file.
